Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-04-16
"SELF OR BEARER. !"
Author Of "AN Sorts and Conditions Of
Men, The Captain 5 Room" etc.
By WALTER BEsANT.

SoAAtASeCA, " yOu " VuluA Ol CllS man YOU
have conduc led to the lord mayor and after
wards 10 the central criminal court. For
sixty pounds-the paltry sum of sixty
pounds-he will nave purchased the exclu.
sive use of a whitewashed APARTMENT, rent
Tree, for seven or perhaps ten years. There
Will &c other advantages-the privilege Of
a whole year spent alone, with an hours e1-
erclse every day then a good many years OF
healthy employment, without any beer or
wine or tobacco, and no amusements and no
die talk. And when at last he comes out ii
Will bs to a world which will turn its back
upon him for ths rest of his natural life.
The hand of Justice Is heavy in this country
on thu man who invades the rights Of
property; but ths baud Of Society il ten
times as hard-ten times as hard. So it
ought to be-so it ought to be. For If prop
erty is not held sacred who would trv to
make money"
Dick went back to his own desk, bearing
with him the checks and the check book.
He sat down and began to think. He had a
week i'll which he woull be left quite undis-
turbed to find out the forger. A good deal
may To done in a week. If he failed, his
father would take up the case for himself
his father, whose scent was as keen as a
bloodhound's. and WHOSE pursuit would be
as unrelenting. He had a week! For the
moment he couid not think what was to be
done; he had 10 clew, perhaps; or, perhaps.
lie was not satisfied as to the best way of
following up a c!ew Perhaps the problem
presented itself to him as it would to IN out
slider. Given a robbery and a forgery. The
robbery must have been committed when
MIR. Murridge was out-that was Ger
tain; the forgery must have been com.
mltted BY some one well acquainted with the
custom of drawing twelve pound checks. a.
we'll as able to initiate a signature. The
only persons who had access to the inner
Office in Mr.. Murridge's absence was him.
self, Norah Cronan, the Office boy and the
housekeerer; but the latter only when the
Offices were clio e and on Sundays. Sus-
pcion might fall upon any Of these four, but
especially upon himself and upon Norah.
He put this quite clearly to himself. A for
the Office 10y, no one would susp ct him: he
was too great a fool even to think of such a
crime; and the housekeeper, too, was out Of
the question. There remained, as the most
likely persons to 10 suspected, himself and
Norah.
Having got so far be remained here. IN.
able to get any 1urther: in fact. he came
back to it again and again.
Myself and Norah," he THOUGHT est
must lie between us two-it must lie be-
tween usv'
The office boy watched him ~curiously.
From his position at the other side of the
fireplace he looked, so to speak. over Dick $
shoulder, and could watch him unseen and
un,uspectei. There were certain special rea-
sons-in fact, they were concealed in the
pocket of his jacke:-why the Office boy
thought that something was going to hap
pen. lherc were other reasons, such as a
great increase IN MIR. Richards sulkiness, a
Jumpy manner which had lately come over
MN ana his rudeness to Miss Cronan, which
made this Intelligent boy believe that some
thlng was going to happen very soon. Then
mr.. Murridge had been shut up with his son
Tor three-quarters of an hour. That meant
Things unusual And now MI. Richard, in
stead OF drawing girls heads, was sitting in
moody thought.
You know how strangely, when the mind
IS greatly exercised and strained, one re-
members some little trif1e, or forgets some
niue naoltual thlng' such as brushing the
mar or putting on a collar. Dicks eyes fell
upon his pocketbook, which lay upon his
desk. 1t was a diary-one of the diaries
whlch give a certain small space for every
Jay IN inc year and a pocket for lettersL 1t
belonged, IKE his purse and his bunch Of
tOSAO" u Ao
could not remember when he had last carried
1t IN MS pocket. Consider, if you are accus-
tomed TO a Dunch OF Keys i'll your pocket.
you 90 not feel their presence, but yet you
nilss them When they are no longer there.
DICK became suddenly conscious that for
Vie time-pernaps an hour, perhaps q
whole day, perhaps more-he mad not 1elr
the presence of the p~ocketbook. But his
mind had been so much occupied bv certain
pressing anx;eties which beset him about
this time, that he had noticed the absence Of
the book half consciously. Now that he saw it
lying on his table he snatched it up, and be-
gan turning over the pages, at first conf
IDENTIFY and then hurriediy, as one looks for
something lost. There was something lost.
He shook out the leaves: he looked through
them again; he searched the empty pocket.
Then he searched his own pockets.
The boy | ehind him watched with a broad
grin of satisfaction. as if he understood the
cause of this distress.
Then Dick sprans from his chair and
looked under the table, on the floor, in the
blotting pad. in the letter rack and in the
No Greek mime ever expressed more wildly
the anxiety, dismay and terror of one who
has lost a thing Of vital Importance. The
hoy felt as if be should like to roll on the
floor and scream.
"Have Won Kicked up ANYTHING, YOU bow,
Dick turned upon him ~fercely, so that he
was fain to repress the smile upon his lips
and the light of iov in his eve. "Come here
you little devilr
The how oteyel with comnosed face and
in fact. with considerable trenjdation he.
cause there was Something in his Jacket
rocket which he ardently desired to conceal